A warning: this video might cost you tonight’s sleep
Do you remember Jaws? One of the reasons Spielberg’s film was as terrifying as it was is because of how little we see of the beast itself; the suspense was carried by the silence before the attack.
When you watch this video, check out how the sharks approach the vessel and keep that in mind. They stay below, utilizing the deepness of the water to sneak up on it. They stay hidden; they don’t let you see them until they’ve already sunk their teeth in. And you’re able to watch it unfold face-to-face because of how far photography’s come today.
The REMUS SharkCam is a vessel built to do exactly what its name suggests. Helmed by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the SharkCam utilizes five different GoPro cameras to capture the activities of sharks. Without the risk of human contact, it allows us to get our closest look yet at the great white predator.
By the time I was finished with this video, actually, a lot was brought into perspective for me.
71 percent of the world we live in is the ocean, and over 95 percent of it has never been explored by the human race. It’s astonishing that though we’ve come so far in how much we know, we’ve still barely scratched the surface in what we have to learn about our Earth. As we wage wars, fighting and killing time and time again for the land we wish to conquer, there’s an entirely different ecosystem flourishing right below us; a larger ecosystem filled with species just as hungry as us for their share of territory. And we have nearly no idea what they’re like.
But for how much we don’t know, we do know five percent of our ocean. That five percent has already given us wonders that we still haven’t finished learning about. And here we are today, watching a shark attack us from the comfort of our laptops and smartphones. It’s an amazing time to learn, and it’s projects like these remind me how lucky we are to be experiencing it all.
[Via Fstoppers]
